PANIC ROOM

Ten

 The deafening silence is worse to bear than the devious voice. I'm all alone now, with nothing but my muddled thoughts and injuries to contend with.

I sink to my knees, my body throbbing with agony. Footsteps behind me.

"Hello?" my voice echoes, but no answer. I turn around to see another figure, silently shuffling towards me.

"Eric! You're alive?!"

His head is bent, his mask gone. His red hair is coated in his own blood. He raises his head.

I realise he's not alive. It's impossible...

Where did you think the Fallen came from, 020?

The Fallen CANDIDATES live in the Panic Room after their deaths.

Eric's eye sockets are still bleeding, his eyes torn out. Metal rods impale his fingers, like bionic hooks.

I pull myself to my feet, brandishing my blunt knife. I pounce, knife aimed directly for his chest.

A foul shriek laments from his grey lips, claws scraping at my back as I drive the knife through his spine. Repeatedly.

He falls backwards, a pool of black blood obscuring the concrete floor.

"020? 020! Holy shit: Mark, do something!"

Racing footsteps trace towards me, the green shrouding my vision completely, as the world swirls.

~

You have one antidote. Use it wisely.

The voice rouses me, frightened unmasked faces surrounding me.

Finn pushes a plastic vile of cloudy yellow liquid to my lips, forcing the burning hot concoction down my throat.

The green that frames my vision fades slowly, the thudding in my ears declining as the antidote seeps into my bloodstream.

Mark starts removing my worn armour hastily. Shocked silence follows, as the group stares at the wounds on my body.

"Get the kids away. They're getting enough nightmares as it is." Nick snaps, as Kun and Mark try and treat the injuries.

"I don't think there's any internal bleeding-"

"Bro, since when were you a doctor?" Mark asks in amazement, mopping blood off my elbow.

"Fuck knows, I guess it's just instinct." Kun shrugs, covering my torn vest with my scratched breastplate.

"What happened?" I croak, adjusting my armour with unstable fingers.

"You somehow survived, I don't know how." Kun answers carefully. His eyes flick quickly towards James. James nods slowly.

I slide my mask over my head, the visor cracked and scratched. Mark bites the nail on his forefinger, clearly on edge.

"What aren't you telling me?" I snap, frustrated. Kun winces as I raise my voice. Will points subtly at the floor in front of me.

Then I see it. A heap of decaying black tissue, green fluid oozing out from its large pores as it slithers slowly across the floor.

"What the fuck is that?"

James draws his knife and charges towards me. I instinctively draw mine.

He gouges his blade into the heap, again and again, which screams inhumanely. Finally, he stamps on it with his large black soled boot, muffling its scream.

"That," he pants, still standing on the struggling creature. "came out of your stomach."

I retch, thrown forward by the desire to vomit. The others somehow see this adverse reaction as an invitation for more disgusting details.

"Yeah, Finn saw something shifting around beneath your skin, so he did a caesarean thingy..." Sam graphically recounts.

"So, what do we do now? Can I stay?" I ask expectantly, bile retreating into my stomach.

"That's complicated." Mike replies, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. There's something he's holding back. Something they're all holding back.

Then Nick speaks.

"You were bleeding really badly... we had no choice..."

I fear for the worst, and Johnny basically confirms it.

"We couldn't get the other half of it out, 020."